ready to move on

Sep 4, 2018

As planned we spent yesterday at the Shipshewanna Flea Market. This collection of 900 vendors exhibits weekly throughout the summer and has a special market Labor Day week. Parking is convenient on fields all around the market and the really serious shoppers can stay at a campground within walking distance. It's fun to people watch: a combination of folks who look like us and Amish/Mennonite bargain hunters wearing their classic conservative garb. It's been at least five years since we were there and we were surprised to see the same products for sale that we had purchased years before. If we were heading home after this, I would have been tempted by some of the plants for sale. A large collection of Halloween decorations also caught my eye. This holiday has become almost as big a decoration occasion as Christmas. But we'll be on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic this Halloween, so it was easy to keep the wallet shut. I wan't tempted by the special purses designed for holding guns...

Today we got up at the crack of dawn to be ready for the RV repairman who showed up as scheduled at our door. As soon as I saw him, I felt confidence. This man, only slightly younger than we are, knew exactly what he was doing and quickly realigned our slide wall so that it comes in and out properly. He also took apart the mechanism that opens and closes the stairs at our door. He suspected that we need a new motherboard which they did not have on hand, because he couldn't find anything else wrong. His labors apparently jostled a bit of erosion off and since we left the repair facility the stair functions normally. We envy the people we know who can keep their RV's under roof. Sitting out in the elements takes a toll.

While we waited for him to finish we went to a nearby RV furniture store to work on yet another problem. The fabric on the passenger chair I sit on in the motor home, which rotates to become a living room recliner, is disintegrating. We have been reading online that this is a common problem. During the time period our coach was manufactured, defective pseudo leather was used for the furniture and it delaminates and falls apart for no reason. The only solution seems to be buying a replacement chair. Since electronic controls and seat belts are part of the chair this little purchase could cost us $2,000 to purchase and install. Ouch! We found a chair that matches and can get it on our way home in spring. Til then I'll keep disintegrating and look for a bank to rob.

By noon all our chores were finished so we left our factory parking lot campsite to improve out lot at a state park on the shore of Lake Erie. It's hot and humid and still feels like summer, but we are almost alone here. Just offshore a sprinkling of islands make this a recreation mecca for boaters and sports fishing. And there's a beautiful beach.